Last week we called for your submissions for a new slot, tactical ad of the week. Well, that slot is officially dead. Much like tactical advertising itself, it would seem. Maybe the future is the tactical post.
John Mescall, executive creative director at McCann, told AdNews the decline of the tactical is tied to the slow death of print newspapers, and the ever-increasing pace of digital media.
In the good old days, when there was an abundance of great tactical ads, it was easier and faster to get things done, he said. "There was a very simple relationship between client and agency. When I was a junior, it was, 'Fuck it, let's do it.' You sent it off and it was in the newspaper the next day. Life was simple."
Now there are a lot more people involved. And the more people involved, the harder it gets, he said. "When you have to send it up the chain, it's very difficult to turn something around in an hour. You need direct access to people who can say 'yes' automatically [for tactical ads to work]."
What's more, social media and the internet in general have replaced newspapers as the most current news medium. The response time is minutes, not hours, "and the poor old tactical ad has died with that".
Even the institution that was the April Fool's tactical ad seems to have carked it, Mescall lamented. "I haven't seen a good tactical ad for years. We applaud just because somebody actually does one."
While fast-food brands such as Nando's do make tactical efforts, and Tooheys did some this week for the State of Origin, it is telling that the last great tactical example Mescall can recall was the Veet ad when Barack Obama took over from George Bush. It read simply, 'Goodbye Bush'. "That was years ago. The only other good one I can remember was for Volvo, the day after the stock market crash in '87. It just said, 'Survive the crash'.”
But Matty Burton, executive creative director at Whybin TBWA, disagrees that the tactical is dead. "It has just evolved," he said. "Now it is the tactical post on Facebook."
He cites yoghurt brand Chobani – a client, naturally – as a tactical post practitioner. For example, on Star Wars Day ('May the 4th') it briefly became Obi-Wan Chobani. Badum-tish.
Burton, though, agrees that the print tactical is far more difficult to pull off, because of the amount of people involved in the chain. Also, budgets are often allocated down to the last cent, leaving nothing left in the locker for spontaneous ads. But brands still do them, he said, noting the Durex ad wishing customers a Happy Valentine's Week, with the strapline, 'Perform longer'.
"So they haven't died. But the tactical post is where I reckon it is at. It is very easy to get something up and out there."
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